Stridulation in European mole cricket, Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa (L.) (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae) a north-western population of Iran

Subject Areas :

Mohammad Hossein Kazemi ¹ , Shabnam Jafari ² , Hosseinali Lotfalizadeh ³ , Mohammad Jafarloo ⁴ , Nader Vahdani Manaf ⁵

1 - Department of Plant protection, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch
2 - M.Sc. student of Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Iran
3 - Department of Plant Protection, East-Azerbaijan Research Center of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Tabriz Iran.
4 - Department of Plant Protection, East-Azerbaijan Research Center of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Tabriz Iran.
5 - M.Sc. student of Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Iran.

Received: 2011-06-22 Accepted : 2011-11-05 Published : 2012-02-20

Keywords: European mole cricket, Ensifera, Calling song, Acoustic burrow,

Abstract :

Acoustic system has an important role in communication and behavior of several of insects. In mole crickets, acoustic signals are used for intraspecific communications. It is an important part of their reproductive system that temporal patterns and frequency components of these songs are species specific. Males of the European mole cricket, Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa (Linnaeus, 1758) stridulate by rubbing of their forewings to each other. In this process, the scraper on the posterior margin of the forewing is rubbed by a file bearing 84-90 pegs in the population studied. The stridulatory pegs are placed under surface of the Cu2 vein. Base on results of the present study males excavate an acoustic chamber for sound production. These burrows have one entrance to the soil surface. They were horn shaped and this special pattern amplifies the sound. Each acoustic burrow terminates to two or three horizontal tunnels. Males called for approximately half an hour (ranged 15–46 min) typically. This can often be heard on warm evenings of the spring and attracts the females for mating.

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